Read // Look // Devour // 2017-08-04

Read. // The Wall Street Journal has a great read on PJ Tucker and how he went from an NBA washout to a useful player in the modern NBA game. If you want a breakdown on how current NBA teams are now seeking players that can defend any position and shoot the outside shot, check it out.

Devour. // We went to see an some old Texas Tech friends in Conroe, TX this past weekend and did the whole pool party thing with the kiddos. I brought one of my favorite brews from the Lone Pint Brewery in Magnolia, TX named Yellow Rose. It is a SMaSH brew which focus on a single malt and single hops. Mostly home craft beer makers create this simple type of product, but for being so simple it is one of the best beers in Texas right now with hints of grapefruit, blueberries, and pineapple on a hot summer day. Needless to say my beer of choice that I brought to the pool was the hit of the party.

Brian:

Read. // One of the best parts about summer is it feels like a great time to catch up on reading, and through an Amazon Kindle sale, I finally picked up The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I was a little worried that I would be jaded reading it, as I feel that the book is such a cultural mainstay that it couldn’t possibly live up to expectations if you didn’t read it early on in life. However, I have to say that it blew my expectations out of the water. It clocks in at less than 200 pages, and I’ve literally laughed out loud multiple times. It’s the first in the series, and I can’t wait to pick up the rest (I believe the movie is an amalgamation of the entire series). I’ll never look at a bowl of petunias the same again.

Look. // Wet Hot American Summer is one of my all time favorite movies, and today Netflix is finally bringing the 10-year reunion that’s been 16 years coming with Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later. The amazing thing is that they’ve been able to get pretty much all of the cast back for this. If you haven’t ever seen WHAS or the Netflix prequel series (played by the original cast except at their current age), then let the majesty of this training montage wash over you to get you through your day. I’m already getting my Gene costume ready for Halloween.

Devour. // On Twitter last week, Michael LSRR & I got to talking about the champagne of beers, Miller High Life. While I love craft and drinking local, sometimes you just need a tall boy, and that’s nothing to turn your nose up to. Especially if you make it a High Shirley, invented by the incomparable Sarah Sprague. Pour some grenadine in a glass, add your High Life, and garnish with a cherry if you’re feeling nasty. Incredibly refreshing, and a great way to spruce up a cheap beer to win friends and alienate your loved ones because they think beer cocktails are a bridge too far.

Devour. // This week, I’m going to recommend Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast. The podcast is great all around as it makes you think, empathize, and view life through a different lens. His recent episode about country music was well done and very moving. Grab some tissues and give it a listen.

Seth:

Read. // I think I’ve written about the Barkley Marathons before, but this piece from Esquire’s George Pendle is fantastic. The Barkley Marathons are one of the toughest races in the world, only 14 people have ever finished it and it’s in Tennessee. Another Fantastic piece is from the Bitter Southerner’s Sara Estes and it’s called, “Good Luck, Morons: Lazarus Lake and his impossible race.”

Look. // I was sitting at my desk early one Saturday morning and I ran across the video below. The thought of running had not crossed my mind in years. In fact, I haven’t really run in maybe 10 years or so, maybe longer. But watching that video sparked something. I went on a bit of a “Alastair Humphreys wormhole” because he’s the guy that created the term “microadventures.” Humphreys admits that the term microadventure is nothing more than a marketing gimmick but the idea is that you can go on these short trips without much planning at all and maybe you’re just gone for a day. But the next weekend I hit the dirt and I started to run. I get to run at my parents place, they have a long and skinny piece of property so I don’t have to run on concrete and I get to run with all of my old man’s cows. My biggest fear in running? Being alone with my thoughts. No radio, no music player. Just running and I’m running maybe 5 or 6 miles so that’s a long time for me to be alone in my own brain. The next step is getting up at 3 in the morning, driving some place cool, running for an hour or two, eat something, run back, and then coming home. I live in the DFW area, so there’s lots of options. I can go to Arkansas, Ft. Worth, Austin, Oklahoma, etc. Curious if anyone else does this and if so, where do you go?

Devour . // Over the course of a few months, some lone soldier beers have been leftover in my fridge, meaning that it’s just one of a leftover six-pack or something like that. So, for the next four weeks, I’ll be drinking those beers and giving my two cents. Up first was the Shiner Bock Strawberry Blonde and it was okay. I’m not one of those guys that’s anti-fruit beer, but I’m a big fan of citrus. So when I had the Strawberry Blonde, I think I wanted a bit more, maybe it wasn’t fizzy enough and maybe I’ve become accustomed to the citrus that anything else just isn’t that great. It’s fine, but I wouldn’t buy it again.